Sunday, May 20, 2012

Real World “Dungeon” Cross-Sections

Over on Google+ we have an active
thread going on interesting real world underground cross section
maps, an ever-fascinating source of inspiration for me. Photo dumps
are cheap, lazy posts and I rarely inflict them on readers so forgive
me for taking a tour through these before gearing up for the
(supposedly) meatier posts this week.

The
Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow is a jaw-dropping place: massive soaring spaces, whole
ghostly cathedrals carved out of salt, and all. I got there a bare
hour before closing time on a trip there in the mid-90s (I lived just
across the border in Slovakia at the time) and had one of the worst
bits of being tantalized in my life of traveling.

This is a beauty of a map (click to enlarge):

Now a more isometric view:

And an actual look down onto one
chamber:

You have undoubtedly seen at least a
little of the vast underground cities of Cappadocia in Turkey, but
they never fail to impress me no matter how many times I take a
gander. To get a sense of the sheer size of the largest of the 36
underground refuge cities, Derinkuyu, check out this bit from
Wikipedia:

“The underground city at Derinkuyu
could be closed from the inside with large stone doors. The complex
has a total 11 floors, though many floors have not been excavated.
Each floor could be closed off separately. The city could accommodate
between 35,000 and 50,000 people and had all the usual amenities
found in other underground complexes across Cappadocia, such as wine
and oil presses, stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, and
chapels.”